El 


"     in  ii  i  ii  iii !    nil   ii 

*B    114    575 


O 

o 


•:■:• 


AN 


-    ::■ 


EXPOSITION 


UNJUST  AND  INJURIOUS  RELATIONS 


U.S.  NAVAL  MEDICAL  CORPS, 


V 


A     MEMBER 


"  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy." 


. 


BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED     BY    JOHN     MURPHY, 

146      MARKET      STREET. 
1842. 


/. 


fir** 


EXPOSITION,   &c. 


"  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy." 


Since  the  entrance  of  the  present  head  of  the 
Navy  Department  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  he  has 
manifested  such  a  knowledge  of  the  various  interests 
and  necessities  of  the  service  committed  to  his  charge, 
and  such  an  energetic  spirit  of  improvement  and  re- 
formation, that  to  address  him  with  a  view  to  impart- 
ing information,  or  stimulating  his  action,  may  have 
the  appearance  of  presumption;  but  his  course  has 
so  far  inspirited  the  almost  wasted  hopes  of  the  va- 
rious branches  of  the  service,  that  those  who  hereto- 
fore have  shut  their  eyes  to  error,  from  despair  of  its 
correction,  now  feel  encouraged  to  point  it  out,  and 
they  confidently  rely  upon  the  courtesy  which  marks 
his  official  intercourse  with  the  members  of  the  ser- 
vice, to  view  their  intentions  graciously,  although  they 
may  be  superfluous. 

Although  his  comprehensive  views  of  naval  re-or- 
ganization, may  have  been  suggested  by  the  general 
wrong  existing  in  the  service,  important  and  injurious 
details  may  have  escaped  his  observation ;  indeed,  it 


would  be  a  matter  of  surprise,  if  they  had  not :  for 
error,  too  often,  becomes  sanctioned  by  time,  as  ruins 
grow  venerable  beneath  the  moss,  which,  at  once,  con- 
ceals and  ornaments  their  rottenness.  It  is  the  pur- 
port of  this  communication  to  strip  the  covering  from 
such  errors  and  to  call  his  attention  to  them:  to 
show  that  the  medical  corps  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  is,  by 
the  usages  of  the  sea  service,  placed  in  a  position, 
inconsistent  with  the  arrangements  and  intentions  of 
the  government  in  relation  to  that  corps,  degrading 
to  the  character  of  the  profession  to  which  it  belongs ; 
opposed  to  the  true  interests  of  the  corps,  and  to  the 
interests  of  the  service  in  general,  so  far,  as  those 
interests  depend  upon  the  medical  department.  Each 
one  of  these  assertions  will  become  manifest  from  an 
examination  of  the  real  position  and  relations  of 
medical  officers  in  service. 

It  would  be  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  of  any  one, 
to  enter  into  an  argument  to  show  the  high  character 
of  the  profession  of  medicine,  both  from  its  own  nature 
and  from  its  relations  with  society.  Its  object,  being 
the  good  of  mankind,  there  is  no  science,  moral  or 
physical,  which  is  not  made  tributary  to  it ;  and  there 
is  no  human  intellect  so  gigantic,  but  it  will  find  full 
scope  and  employment  for  all  its  powers  in  the  pro- 
fession of  medicine :  hence,  its  general  claim  to 
respect  and  consideration.  The  duties  of  the  medical 
profession  in  the  naval  service,  are,  not  only  to  reme- 
dy the  diseases  and  injuries  to  which  the  officers  and 


men  of  that  service  are  exposed,  but  to  carefully 
observe  those  influences,  on  the  one  hand,  which  pro- 
duce disease,  or  on  the  other,  preserve  the  health  and 
efficiency  of  a  ship's  company ;  and  also  to  mark  the 
effect  of  climate  and  habits  upon  diseases  and  the 
human  constitution,  thus  becoming  valuable  con- 
tributors to  the  general  stock  of  useful  knowledge. 
By  the  greater  or  less  skill  of  the  medical  officer, 
lives,  valuable  to  the  country,  may  be  preserved  or 
destroyed ;  an  important  action  may  be  won  or  lost. 
In  the  performance  of  their  duties,  as  great  an  amount 
of  moral  and  physical  courage  is  required  as  in  any 
other  department  of  the  service;  in  truth,  greater, 
for  they  are  called  upon  to  exercise  skill  and  coolness 
in  the  midst  of  danger,  and  without  the  excitement  of 
combat.  Finally,  medical  officers  are  held  strictly 
accountable  for  all  the  requirements  which  a  military 
service  exacts  from  its  members,  as  officers  and  gen- 
tlemen. Toward  a  body  of  men  from  whom  such 
duties  are  expected,  and  such  a  character  required,  it 
is  not  only  a  narrow  and  illiberal  policy,  but  great- 
injustice,  to  pursue  any  course  but  such  as  accords  it 
a  corresponding  degree  of  respect.  Pay  is  the  lowest 
reward  of  an  officer  of  proper  feeling,  and  is  a  secon- 
dary consideration  to  those  usages,  which  ought  to 
protect,  if  not  add  to,  the  respect  due  his  station.  In 
our  naval  service,  the  pay  of  the  medical  officer  is  a 
pittance,  and  the  usages  of  the  sea  service  rank  him 
with  his  predecessors  of  the  days  of  Roderick  Ran- 


6 


dom.      Our  first  position  is,  that  those  usages  are 
opposed  to  the  intentions  of  the  government. 

In  the  selection  of  its  medical  officers,  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  look  to  the  highest  degree  of  pro- 
fessional capability,  as  a  condition  of  their  admission 
into  the  first  grade  of  the  corps.  Having  obtained 
his  education  at  his  own  expense,  and  by  what  labor 
and  application  it  is  unnecessary  to  state ;  and  being 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  though  many  enter  at  a  much 
later  period  of  life ;  the  applicant  is  submitted  to  the 
scrutiny  of  a  national  board  of  medical  officers,  and  so 
rigid  is  the  test,  that  only  an  average  of  one-fourth  of 
those  examined,  though  generally  graduates  of  our 
most  eminent  medical  schools,  are  found  qualified. 
It  is  evident  that  the  government  expects  its  young- 
est medical  officer  to  be  fully  qualified  as  a  physician 
and  surgeon ;  to  have  his  mind  maturely  formed  and 
well  cultivated;  being  properly  satisfied  of  this,  the 
legislature  and  executive  of  his  country  fulfil  the 
promise  made  to  his  hopes,  for  although  they  do  not 
give  him  the  pay  of  a  respectable  clerkship,  the  Pres- 
ident and  Senate  confer  upon  him  an  honorable  com- 
mission, consistent  with  the  character  they  have 
required  him  to  meet.  But  here  all  justice  stops;  he 
has  a  commission  in  his  pocket,  it  is  true,  but  none  in 
fact ;  caprice  and  usage  are  more  powerful  than  his 
country's  will.  His  commission  is  never  known 
again  while  he  is  an  assistant  surgeon,  perhaps,  for 
ten  or  twelve  long  years  of  his  life.     On  ship- board 


the  privileges  of  that  commission  are  violated ;  he  is 
at  once,  suddenly,  thrust  from  the  station  to  which  his 
profession,  his  age,  the  interests  of  the  service,  and 
the  intentions  of  the  government  entitle  him.  Simple 
warrants  given  by  the  department,  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  senate,  take  precedence  of  him ;  aye ! 
even  temporary  appointments,  made  or  destroyed  by 
the  breath  of  the  ship's  captain,  are,  in  all  the  usages 
of  sea  life,  superior  to  the  rank  of  his  commission. 

Upon  reporting  himself  on  ship-board,  the  assistant 
surgeon  is  assigned  to  the  narrow  limits  of  the  steer- 
age, crowded  with  boys  about  entering  upon  their 
nautical  education ;  full  of  fun  and  frolic,  and  merry 
with  the  noisy  hilarity  of  youth.  This  is  his  home, 
and  these  are  his  associates.  If  he  is  admitted  into 
the  society  of  those  more  nearly  his  equals  in  years, 
it  is  as  a  concession  to  which  his  rank,  implied  from 
his  apartment,  does  not  entitle  him.  Upon  descend- 
ing to  this  apartment,  perhaps,  the  first  salutation  that 
he  meets,  is  a  laugh  at  his  trunk  of  books.  Where  is 
he  to  put  them  ?  No  trunks  are  allowed  there,  and 
the  only  accommodation  that  he  has,  is  a  "stow-hole" 
for  his  clothes.  But  it  would  be  idle  to  make  any 
provision  for  professional  studies,  in  a  place  so  little 
suited  to  their  prosecution.  The  student  who  has 
for  years  taught  his  mind  to  seek  pleasure  in  the  pur- 
suit of  knowledge,  and  strengthened  it  by  converse 
with  those  of  the  highest  order ;  regarding  every  day 
as  lost  in  which  he  does  not  add  to  his  own  ability  to 


8 


be  useful,  finds  himself  compelled  to  recede  from  the 
station  he  had  acquired,  to  return  to  his  forgotten 
juvenility,  and  either,  to  repress  all  social  feeling,  or, 
to  find  its  enjoyment  by  becoming  again  a  boy.  He 
is  also  compelled  to  submit  to  all  the  minute  regula- 
tions established  to  restrain  his  more  youthful  asso- 
ciates. Human  nature  finds  it  easier  to  yield  to  sur- 
rounding circumstances,  than,  continually,  to  resist 
them,  and  the  foregoing  relations  are  sufficient  to 
diminish  the  tone  of  thought  and  feeling  of  any  mind. 
But  the  medical  officer  is  expected  to  make  bricks 
out  of  straw.  Notwithstanding  the  adverse  circum- 
stances in  which  he  is  placed,  and  that  such  usages 
debar  him  of  the  means  of  improvement,  he  is  ex- 
pected, daily,  to  increase  in  knowledge,  and  at  the  end 
of  five  years,  is  submitted  to  another  rigid  examina- 
tion to  test  his  progress,  and  should  he  be  again  suc- 
cessful, is  rewarded  by  a  very  slight  increase  of  pay  ; 
but  his  station  is  in  no  wise  changed.  His  apartment 
and  his  associations  are  still  the  same,  save,  that  a 
new  and  more  juvenile  set  may  take  the  place  of 
many  of  his  former  companions,  who  have  nowT  grown 
past  him,  and  are  occupying  separate  apartments  in 
the  ward-room,  with  all  the  concomitant  honors  of 
ward-room  officers;  some  of  them,  as  has  been  the 
case,  may  be  acting  commanders,  while  yet  he  is  the 
humble  steerage  officer.  During  the  years  that  he 
passes  in  the  rank  of  an  assistant-surgeon,  heretofore, 
and  most  likely  hereafter,  seldom  less  than  ten,  there 


are  constantly  presented  to  him  the  following  con- 
trasts with  his  own  situation. 

The  commander  of  a  squadron  has  a  young  friend 
who,  before  settling  in  life,  wishes  to  see  a  little  of 
the  world ;  the  commodore  of  his  own  free  will 
makes  him  his  secretary  for  the  cruise,  and  he  passes 
at  once  from  civil  life  to  the  occupation  and  comforts 
of  his  own  state-room,  and  to  the  honors  and  asso- 
ciations of  the  ward-room.  All  the  other  appoint- 
ments from  civil  life,  and  which  are  made  without 
any  test  of  qualification,  are  also  admitted  at  once  to 
these  superior  honors  and  comforts ;  the  professor  of 
mathematics  from  his  college  or  school  room,  the 
chaplain  from  his  desk,  the  purser  from  his  counting 
room,  and  a  second  lieutenant  of  marines  from  any 
occupation  in  life,  from  the  mechanic's  bench  to  the 
military  academy.  We  do  not  adduce  these  as  any 
instances  of  impropriety,  so  far  as  the  officers  named 
are  concerned,  but  only  to  show  the  great  wrong 
done  the  assistant-surgeon,  who  enters  the  service  as 
a  commissioned  officer,  to  become  permanently  identi- 
fied with  it;  with  a  professional  education,  tested  by 
rigid  scrutiny,  and  who  on  the  day  that  each  of  the 
above  named  officers  is  first  admitted,  may  have  been 
devoting  his  time  and  his  talents  to  the  service  for 
five,  eight  or  ten  years. 

Not  only  do  the  superior  advantages  awarded  these 
commissioned,  warranted,  and  temporarily  appointed 
officers  over  the  assistant  surgeons,  give  them  greater 


10 


comforts ;  but,  they  are  by  consequence,  entitled  to 
certain  little  ceremonies  of  honor  which,  shadowy 
and  unsubstantial  though  they  be,  by  being  withheld 
from  the  medical  officer,  serve  to  mark  the  humility 
of  his  position.  When  named,  these  ceremonies  be- 
come triflingly  ridiculous,  and  to  estimate  them  with 
becoming  gravity,  it  is  necessary  to  consider,  that 
they  make  part  and  parcel  of  an  isolated  society, 
made  up  of  ceremonies  as  appeals  to  those  who  are 
accustomed  to  regard  symbols  as  substance;,  and 
when  such  trifles  confer  honor,  they  imply  correspond- 
ing degradation  where  they  are  withheld.  The  fol- 
lowing are  some  of  the  observances  alluded  to :  when 
a  ward-room  officer  passes  out  of,  or  into  the  ship,  a 
boatswain's  mate  attends  the  side  and  chirps  him  a 
note  of  honor ;  he  approaches  the  ship  on  the  star- 
board side,  that  sacred  to  rank;  descends  to  his 
apartments  by  the  after ',  instead  of  the  forward 
hatchway;  has  the  privilege  of  answering  a  proud 
"aye,  aye"  to  the  sentry's  hail,  and  is  lighted  over 
the  gangway  by  two  lanterns.  On  the  contrary,  the 
assistant-surgeon,  after  years  of  service,  passes  out  of 
or  into  the  ship  in  silence  and  unhonored,  must  ap- 
proach it  on  the  larboard  side,  or  be  regarded  as  a 
trespasser,  and,  to  thejsentry's  hail,  answer  an  humble 
"no,  no ;"  must  puff  his  cigar  on  the  larboard  side  in 
company  with  his  friends  the  middies,  some  of  whom 
are  now  but  little  older  than  his  own  children ;  the 
sacred  starboard  being  tabooed  to  his  humility ;  and 


11 


he  must  be  careful  to  select  the  forward  hatchway  in 
descending  to  his  apartment. 

As  these  rituals  and  petty  distinctions  are  in  inces- 
sant action,  and  are  insisted  upon,  the  whole  life  on 
shipboard  is  one  of  continued  and  systematic  insult  to 
the  medical  officer. 

So  great  is  the  sense  of  injustice  done  to  this  class 
of  officers,  that  in  many  instances  it  is  attempted  to 
be  done  away  with  by  those,  who  are  called  "sea 
officers,"  particularly  where  these  latter  are  of  a  lib- 
eral and  enlightened  character,  (and  to  the  honor  of 
the  service  of  the  present  day,  the  majority  of  them 
are  found  to  be  such,)  by  inviting  the  assistant-surgeon 
into  the  ward-room ;  but  it  is  an  exceedingly  unplea- 
sant position  for  an  officer,  to  receive  as  a  concession 
and  indulgence,  to  be  withdrawn  at  pleasure,  what 
by  every  principle  of  justice  he  has  a  right  to  claim  *, 
and  moreover,  this  indulgence  is  contingent  upon  the 
characters  of  the  officers  composing  the  ward-room 
mess  and  upon  the  impression  the  medical  officer  may 
make  upon  them. 

At  length,  after  years  of  habituation  to  such  indig- 
nities so  as  almost  to  lose  sensibility  to  them,  however 
keenly  he  might  have  felt  them  at  first,  the  assist- 
ant is  promoted  to  the  rank  of  full  surgeon,  and  enters 
the  ward-room.  It  is  well  for  his  feelings  that  the  edu- 
cation of  humility  he  has  passed  through,  has  pre- 
pared him  for  a  patient  endurance  of  its  continuance. 
Although  the  chief  object  of  our  remarks  is  not  in 


12 


reference  to  pay,  still  the  great  injustice  with  which 
the  medical  officer  is  treated,  as  regards  compensation, 
requires  a  passing  notice.  Now  that  he  is  promoted  to 
a  full  surgeoncy,  his  pay  is  less  than  that  of  the  young- 
est lieutenant  in  service,  and  there  are  surgeons,  who 
have  for  years  occupied  the  highest  rank  of  their  corps, 
receiving  less  compensation  than  lieutenants, who,  long 
after  the  admission  of  these  surgeons,  entered  the  ser- 
vice as  youths,  (of  course,  received  their  education  in 
it,)  and  are  now  not  older  in  years  than  the  medical 
officers  were  at  their  original  admission.  It  would  seem 
that  to  name  such  injustice  would  be  to  secure  its 
correction. 

The  surgeon  has  now  become  a  wTard-room  officer, 
and,  excepting  a  trifling  increase  in  his  pay  of  two 
hundred  dollars,  for  every  five  years  of  service,  his 
position  is  stationary;  and  stationary,  at  the  most 
humble  point;  the  respect  he  receives  is  dependent 
entirely  upon  the  character  or  the  whim  of  his  asso- 
ciates :  none  is  guaranteed  him  by  regulation,  and  he 
is  generally  compelled  to  yield  precedence  in  all 
points  of  etiquette  to  the  youngest  of  his  associates, 
and  even  has  his  seat  at  the  mess  table  assigned  him 
upon  this  estimate  of  his  rank.  Gradually,  and  by 
the  lapse  of  time,  his  brethren  the  "sea  officers"  pass 
from  the  ward-room  to  the  rank  and  honors  of  com- 
manders, and  to  the  occupation  of  their  own  cabins, 
but  the  old  surgeon,  though  grey  hairs  and  an  enfee- 
bled body  mark  the  length  and  fidelity  of  his  service, 


13 


finds  no  increase  of  comfort,  the  same  position  and 
the  same  limited  apartment  which  he  entered  on 
the  first  day  of  his  promotion,  are  all  that  he  can 
claim,  on  the  last  day  of  his  service,  and  he  passes 
to  his  grave  unhonored,  save  by  the  spontaneous 
award  of  those  who  knew  him.  Such  treatment  and 
such  relations  are  assigned  to  the  medical  officers  of 
no  other  service  in  the  world.  In  our  own  army,  the 
medical  officers  have  a  rank  and  comforts  allotted  them 
fairly  proportioned  to  the  respectability  of  their  pro- 
fession, and  the  importance  of  their  duties,  and  due 
to  the  self-respect  which,  it  should  be  the  principle  of 
the  government,  to  encourage  in  every  officer :  and 
among  their  brother  officers  of  the  army,  they  hold 
those  social  relations  which  cultivated  minds  always 
acknowledge  as  the  claim  of  their  education  and 
profession.  Surgeons  in  the  army  are  assimilated  to  the 
rank  of  major,  and  have  choice  of  quarters  after  the 
commanding  officer  of  the  post.  The  following  is  the 
relation  of  their  compensation  with  that  of  naval 
officers  of  the  same  grade ;  the  highest  and  lowest 
pay  of  each  grade  being  taken.  It  will  be  observed 
that  assistant- surgeons  in  the  army  receive  more  pay 
than  a  surgeon  of  ten  years1  standing  in  the  navy, 
although  the  naval  surgeon  may  have  been  twenty 
years  a  commissioned  officer. 

TABLE. 

Army.  Navy. 

Surgeons  of  ten  years'  standing,. . .  .$2519  83  to  $2884  83        $1400  to  $2172 

«      Under  ten  years, 1794  00  to    2227  83  1000  to     1572 

Assistant  Surgeons, 1083  00  to    2439  37  650  to     1272 


14 


The  British  Government,  ever  vigilant  of  the  inter- 
ests of  the  navy  in  all  its  branches,  fosters  the  medi- 
cal department  with  care  proportioned  to  that  of 
every  other  branch  of  the  service. 

By  Her  Majesty's  Order  in  Council,  issued  in  1840, 
which  grants  certain  privileges  to  naval  assistant- 
surgeons  in  regard  to  pay,  it  is  further  ordered  that, 
"naval  medical  officers  are  to  be  henceforth  placed, 
in  respect  to  rank,  designation,  pay,  and  retirement, 
on  a  scale  more  nearly  assimilated  to  that  assigned 
officers  of  the  army  medical  department." 

Having  shown  that  the  usages  applied  to  naval 
medical  officers  on  ship-board  are  inconsistent  with 
the  intentions  of  the  government,  so  far  as  those  in- 
tentions can  be  known  from  its  acts,  injurious  to  the 
interests  of  the  corps,  and  to  those  of  the  service,  and 
inconsistent  with  the  usages  of  corresponding  ser- 
vices; we  propose  further  to  show  that  they  have  no 
foundation  in  utility,  discipline,  or  subordination. 
The  object  of  all  government  regulations  is,  to  se- 
cure the  greatest  degree  of  efficiency  of  its  agents,  and 
all  officers  are  alike  servants  of  the  government,  re- 
sponsible to  it  and  entitled  to  its  protection;  all  are 
alike  important  in  their  vocation,  and  efficiency  being 
provided  for,  and  the  interests  of  the  country  secured, 
no  regulations  are  necessary  to  add  to  the  ascendancy 
of  one  class  by  the  degradation  of  another.  Officers 
are  not  the  servants  of  officers ;  and  regulations  are 
necessary  and  required  by  subordination,  to  do  away 


15 


with  such  an  idea,  which  has  become  too  prevalent 
from  the  use  of  the  possessive  pronoun  my— as,  for 
instance,  my  ship — my  officers,  and  my  surgeon.  If 
officers  are  left  thus  at  loose  ends,  with  no  limit  to 
subordination  but  individual  will,  and  which  will 
may  not  discriminate  between  subordination  to  law 
for  its  appropriate  ends,  and  unbounded  servility  to 
the  individual,  insubordination  must  result,  or  self- 
respect  be  lost.  It  is  as  necessary  to  control  the 
uses  of  power  for  its  legitimate  purposes,  as  it  is  to 
secure  obedience  from  subordinates ;  mutual  aggres- 
sion should  be  guarded  against.  No  one  class  of 
officers  is  to  be  supposed  to  feel  a  greater  regard  for 
the  interests  of  the  country,  or  the  good  of  the  ser- 
vice, than  another;  and  this  feeling  of  love  of  country 
and  "esprit  du  corps"  should  be  allowed  its  full  influ- 
ence in  securing  the  performance  of  its  duties.  The 
most  noble  influences  of  action  run  the  risk  of  de- 
struction by  such  unnecessary  regulations,  as  never 
suppose  the  possibility  of  their  existence.  The 
officer  who  would  conscientiously  and  rigidly  obey 
the  strictest  exactions  of  law,  and  who  would  be 
most  worthy  of  his  country's  service,  would  be  the 
first  to  resist  a  servile  and  degrading  personal 
domination.  "I'll  break  you,  sir,"  may  be,  as  it  often 
is,  the  threat  and  the  result,  and  it  is  cruel  that  the 
country  should  leave  any  of  its  officers  to  an  un- 
aided contest  between  his  bread  and  his  honor ;  but 
there  will  always  be  some  found,  ready  to  sacrifice 


16 


their  commissions  to  the  preservation  of  their  self- 
respect,  and  the  only  way  to  guard  against  such  in- 
subordination is  for  the  country,  by  proper  regulation, 
to  prevent  its  necessity.  In  a  military  service,  a  tame 
and  cringingly  servile  character  is  as  destructive  of 
the  force  and  energy  of  such  a  service,  as  is  insubor- 
dination, and  one  or  the  other  must  result,  unless 
subordinates  are  protected  in  all  consistent  rights 
and  privileges.  An  eloquent  writer  remarks  upon 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  courts  of  Europe,  "  There 
was  combined  with  all  the  external  grace  and  noble- 
ness, a  frequent  meanness  of  sentiment,  a  cringing 
servility,  and  calculating  self-seeking,  among  many  of 
the  most  dazzling  courtiers ;  attributes  and  qualities 
from  which,  perhaps,  the  regions  of  no  despotism, 
however  polished,  are  exempt."  We  need  have  no 
such  results  in  our  navy,  for  no  such  irresponsible 
despotism  is  necessary  to  the  good  of  the  service,  or 
to  discipline  and  subordination.  Discipline  and  sub- 
ordination, are  the  talismanic  words,  which  have  lent 
the  sanction  of  their  names  to  oppression  and  insult, 
as  the  cross  has  been  held  aloft  to  call  for  approba- 
tion upon  murder  and  rapine. 

The  foregoing  principles  being  true,  how  unneces- 
sary, how  injurious,  is  the  humble  and  unprotected 
position  of  the  medical  corps!  Its  duties  being 
entirely  out  of  the  line  of  military  routine,  never 
commanding,  save  within  itself,  and  necessarily  ac- 
knowledging the  superiority,  upon  duty,  of  the  repre- 


17 

sentative  of  the  law,  be  he  the  youngest  midshipman 
or  the  oldest  commodore,  no  honors  or  rank  conferred 
upon  that  corps  could  militate  with  discipline ;  and 
the  government  having,  by  law,  secured  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  medical  officer,  guaranteed  his  proper 
attendance,  and  conferred  power  sufficient  upon  the 
commander,  to  execute  the  law  in  relation  to  that 
attendance,  should  protect  him  from  vexatious  an- 
noyances, and,  by  proper  regulation  and  liberal  pro- 
visions and  honors,  sustain  the  respectability  of  the 
corps,  to  which  he  belongs  ansUrender  the  performance 
of  his  duties  a  matter  of  pride,  instead  of  humiliation. 
It  should  be  a  corps,  into  which,  the  best  professional 
talents  of  the  country  should  have  inducements  to 
enter,  for  those,  who  endure  the  privations  and  en- 
counter the  dangers  of  the  naval  service,  should  have 
the  most  competent  agents  allowed  them,  for  the  mit- 
igation of  the  suffering  of  disease  and  injury,  and  the 
preservation  of  their  lives  and  health.  Hence,  it  is 
not  only  the  duty  of  the  government,  but  it  is  the 
personal  interest  of  every  officer  in  the  service  to  lend 
his  influence,  to  give  character  and  standing  to  the 
medical  corps. 

The  natural  position  of  the  medical  corps,  and  the 
improbability  of  its  coming  in  collision  with  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  ship,  is  shown  from  the  fact,  that  those 
commanders,  who  are  most  distinguished  for  intelli- 
gence, mental  cultivation  and  liberal  views,  have  no 
difficulties  with  their  medical  officers,  for  such  com- 
3 


IS 


manders  award  to  these  officers,  spontaneously,  their 
proper  position,  a  full  confidence  in  their  sense  of 
professional  responsibility,  and  find,  that  they  can 
seek  their  familiar  companionship  without  any  inter- 
ruption of  military  subordination.  But  as  men  glide 
into  the  rank  of  commander,  by  the  lapse  of  time, 
independently  of  ability  or  merit,  it  is  not  strange 
that  some  are  found  of  views  so  narrow  and  illiberal 
as  to  feel  jealous  of  all  who  breathe  without  their 
permission,  and  think  themselves  insulted,  if  thought 
is  exercised  without  th^sanction  of  their  will.  Such 
men  by  a  continual  and  vexatious  interference  with 
the  duties  of  the  medical  officer,  or  a  cruel  annoy- 
ance to  the  sick  committed  to  his  charge,  give  rise  to 
difficulties ;  and  of  such  a  character  is  almost  every 
difficulty  in  which  a  medical  officer  has  been  con- 
cerned. We  never  hear  of  such  collisions  in  the 
army.  In  a  contest  with  such  men,  in  the  navy,  the 
case  is  carried  before  a  partial  tribunal,  one  of  com- 
manders, and  the  result  may  generally  be  anticipated, 
previous  to  the  trial.  Not,  that  we  mean  to  assert, 
that  they  would,  deliberately,  render  a  verdict  con- 
trary to  their  consciences  and  oaths,  but  no  man  is 
superior  to  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature,  and  in- 
voluntarily, unconsciously  to  themselves,  they  arrive  at 
the  conclusion,  that  their  own  rule  of  safety,  is  that 
of  irresponsibility;  each  one  feels,  that  he  may  be 
brought  into  a  similar  collision,  and  a  decision,  always 
on  the  side  of  power,  diminishes  the  danger  of  his 


19 


being  held  responsible  for  its  improper  exercise. 
Justice  has  ever  been  found  a  small  mouthful  in  the 
way  of  a  voracious  self-interest.  It  is  unnecessary,  at 
this  time,  to  say  more  upon  a  wrong  to  which  facts 
are  opening  the  eyes  of  all  men. 

It  is  in  the  power  of  the  Department,  to  do  much, 
to  place  the  naval  medical  service  upon  a  proper 
footing,  the  rest  depends  upon  the  justice  of  the  na- 
tional legislature.  To  the  head  of  the  Department 
and  to  the  legislature  of  their  country,  the  subordi- 
nate branches  of  the  service  look  for  care  and  pro- 
tection :  they  have  no  other  dependance  for  the 
preservation  of  their  rights  or  a  correction  of  their 
wrongs. 

One  of  the  first  steps  of  improvement  is  to  assign 
the  assistant  surgeons  a  position,  consistent  with  their 
character,  their  age,  and  their  profession — another, 
and  an  important  one,  wTould  be  to  define,  as  has 
been  done  in  the  British  service,  the  rank  and  privi- 
leges of  the  medical  corps  in  general ;  to  make  them 
proportioned  to  the  important  duties  and  high  re- 
sponsibilities of  its  station,  and  corresponding  to  that 
occupied  in  other  military  services.  It  is  not  only 
due,  but  necessary  to  those,  who  are  part  of  a  military 
system,  and  held  amenable  to  all  the  requirements 
and  etiquette  of  that  system,  that  they  have  their 
own  position  defined  and  guarded  by  corresponding 
symbols  and  honors.  In  the  third  place,  medical  offi- 
cers should  compose,  at  least  a  part,  of  military  courts, 


20 


before  which  a  medical  officer  is  brought  for  trial. 
This  is  right,  in  obedience  to  the  just  principle,  that  a 
man  shall  be  tried  by  his  peers.  They  are  compe- 
tent by  law;  there  is  precedent  for  their  appoint- 
ment ;  and  no  one  will  say,  they  are  not  as  capable  as 
others,  from  their  intelligence  and  integrity,  of  render- 
ing an  enlightened  and  righteous  verdict. 

It  is  no  argument,  in  favor  of  the  continuance  of  the 
marked  wrongs,  or  the  humiliating  official  relations  of 
the  medical  corps,  that  its  members  have  won  for 
themselves  a  character  of  honor  and  respectability ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  an  additional  evidence  of 
their  claim  to  their  country's  support  and  protection. 
This  general  reputation,  so  far  as  the  corps  may  pos- 
sess it,  has  been  won,  by  individual  force  of  character, 
in  opposition  to  adverse  regulations,  and  unaided  by 
the  support  and  protection,  which  they  wTere  entitled 
to  receive  from  their  country.  But  the  history  of  the 
success  of  the  medical  corps,  is  not  its  whole  history ; 
there  is  a  counter  narration,  unrecorded  and  undi- 
vulged.  Who  takes  note  of  those,  whose  talents 
would  have  been  an  honor  and  benefit  to  the  coun- 
try's service,  but,  who,  from  familiarity  with  its  injus- 
tice, shrink  from  its  employ?  We  can  adduce,  at 
least  one  eminent  professor,  who  carefully  guards  his 
students  from  the  navy,  as  the  mselstrom  of  talents, 
fame  and  fortune.  Of  those  in  the  service,  how  many 
are  there,  who  finding  themselves  in  a  false  position, 
remain  as  a  matter  of  bitter  expediency,  awaiting 


21 


the  first  favorable  moment,  to  quit  a  service,  which 
neither  rewards  their  labors,  nor  respects  their  pro- 
fession ?  How  many,  who  gradually  lose  the  spirit 
of  professional  pride,  whose  impulse  was  onward, 
and  philosophically,  though  naturally,  fall  into  the 
same  estimate  of  their  profession,  as  is  taken  by  the 
usages  of  the  service,  and  learn  to  regard  it  with  too 
much  contempt,  to  make  any  effort  for  its  advance- 
ment. Although,  some  by  force  of  character,  or  fa- 
voring circumstances,  or  both,  have  established  a 
reputation  of  honor  for  themselves  and  for  the  service 
of  which  they  are  members,  is  it  worthy  of  the  gene- 
rosity, the  dignity,  or  the  justice  of  their  country  that 
this  has  been  accomplished  in  struggling  opposition 
to  every  official  impediment  7 

Opposition  or  neglect  may  retard  the  advance  of 
the  naval  medical  corps  to  its  proper  position,  but 
sooner  or  later,  despite  of  opposition  or  neglect,  that 
position  it  must  reach.  Principles  of  a  permanent 
character  may  be  covered  up,  by  temporary  circum- 
stances, but  eventually  will  rise  superior  to  them,  and 
the  present  relations  of  the  medical  corps,  in  the  navy, 
are  so  contrary  to  its  own  nature,  to  its  relations  with 
society  in  general,  to  the  interests  of  the  service,  and 
to  the  common  sense  of  the  people,  that  those  rela- 
tions cannot  endure.  "History  is  philosophy  teaching 
by  example,"  and  the  history  of  what  has  been  done 
in  other  services,  and  in  the  services,  too,  of  those 
countries,  whose  conventional  arrangements  exclude 


22 


the  profession  of  medicine,  from  the  relations  with  gene- 
ral society,  which  it  holds  in  ours,  teach  us,  in  the  most 
forcible  manner,  that  an  end  must  come  to  the  present 
false  and  unnatural  arrangements.  By  using  the 
powers  intrusted  to  them,  to  hasten  the  arrival  of  that 
period,  the  legislative  and  executive  departments  will 
be  putting  an  end  to  long  continued  and  gross  injus- 
tice, and  while  restoring  an  important  class  of  public 
agents  to  their  natural  relations  and  position,  they  will 
be,  at  the  same  time,  increasing  the  efficiency  of  those 
agents,  advancing  the  objects  of  their  creation,  and 
rendering  them  doubly  valuable  to  the  country's  ser- 
vice and  their  country's  good.  In  this  case,  justice 
is  harmoniously  invited  onward  by  the  public  weal, 
and  need  not  push  its  way  under  the  sanction  of  that 
principle  whose  mandate  is, 

"Fiat  Justitia,  ruat  ccelum." 


■■■•.. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


tNlar'SOBZ 
l0Jurt50R» 


LD  21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 


Stockton,  Calif. 
W.  )AN.  2\,  1908 


965191 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


